David Miliband for Labour Leader

I’ve been as certain as I could be since the Labour Leadership election began that I was going to vote for David Miliband; I like a lot of what he has had to say during the campaign and I do think he would unite the party and bring voters over to Labour from both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, which is precisely what Labour needs to do if it has any chance of winning the next General Election in 2015. The only reservation I have is if he will be radical enough with the policies he introduces or if he will be a continuation of what has gone before. There can be no doubt that much of what the coalition government are implementing right now will be catastrophic for this country over the long-term, and we should fight hard for our values and beliefs, but disagreeing with everything the coalition are doing just for the sake of it would in my opinion be completely wrong. That is where the Tories went wrong in 1997 and it took three election defeats for the Conservative Party before they sat up and began to understand why they were so comprehensively defeated in the three previous elections. Thankfully Labour is in a much stronger position today than the Tories were in 1997 and we have every opportunity to get back into government at the next election, providing we make the right choices as a party between now and 2015.

I have decided to vote for David Miliband in the forthcoming leadership election and I would encourage others to follow suit, but I also think his brother Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham both have excellent ideas and qualities to bring to the table. I met Andy Burnham for the second time recently at a Labour Party meeting in Swindon and although many of his ideas are quite traditional Labour, I do think he would make a really positive contribution both in the Shadow Cabinet and eventually I hope in the Cabinet itself. Ed Balls and Diane Abbott however probably don’t have the support either within the Labour Party or within the country to take the party forward, and besides I do think Diane is much better suited sitting on the ‘This Week’ sofa and we would all miss her valuable insight if her absence from the show became permanent. I have decided to support David Miliband’s campaign team and work as a telephone canvasser calling Labour voters up and down the country to try and garner their support for David in the upcoming election. If you would like to know more about David’s ideas for taking the Labour Party forward, and the direction he believes is right for the country, you can find out more by visiting his website

NHS Direct

Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health has today announced plans to scrap the NHS Direct service set up under Labour in 1998 and which 9.5 million people every year rely on for medical advice and reassurance. The coalition government are planning to replace it with a cheaper alternative manned by people with no more than 60 hours training and will be the equivalent of a telephone call centre, and we all know how completely abhorrent most call centres are for customers. NHS direct is currently staffed by trained doctors and nurses who are experts in their field and who know instinctively what they are talking about, how can someone with no medical degree and just 60 hours’ worth of training possibly compare to that. Piece by piece this government are dismantling the NHS as we know it and slowly but surely are handing parts of it to the private sector, and no doubt this replacement service for NHS Direct will also be privatised in a few years from now. Not one single person in this country voted for these changes and we need to stand up and fight back against this betrayal of the National Health Service.

If Mr Cameron is unable to keep his election promises, maybe he will reconsider this proposal if enough people sign the petition against this act by visiting the Save NHS Direct website, after all the Prime Minister did say during the election that if more than 100,000 people sign a petition against any government plans, he would reconsider those plans – now is the time to put that statement to the test. Sign this petition and forward the website details to everyone in your email address book.

David Miliband and Me

I spent the best part of a couple of hours last Wednesday evening, 18^th August at a question and answer session with Labour Leadership contender David Miliband in Swindon and I came away impressed with a lot of what he had to say. David spoke about rebuilding the Labour Party from the grassroots up rather than a top-down approach much criticised of the way Tony Blair ran the party, he spoke eloquently on the subject of creating a fully elected House of Lords – something I’ve agreed with for many years, and while David Miliband has been my preferred choice for Labour Leader since the race began, I am starting to question if he will be radical enough in bringing about the changes I would like to see if and when Labour are returned to government.

Charismatic and charming he certainly is, and any potential leader needs those qualities but I’m looking beyond just the leadership of the Labour Party and trying to imagine how each of the candidates would lead the country should they eventually become Prime Minister; I am slightly torn with David Miliband – on one hand I think he would unite the party and the country, I believe he has the capacity to reach beyond the Labour voter and encourage Tory and Lib Dem voters to vote Labour, and I also believe he would create a stable path back to economic stability, but on the other hand I also think he would probably be a continuation of what has gone before and I think we need a radical and really fresh approach not just to politics; but to the policies that a potential government can implement.

I was a strong supporter of Tony Blair, he did a lot of good things in government – I know he has his detractors and there are many things which I disagreed with him over as well, Iraq being the most obvious but he took the party to three consecutive election victories after two decades in the wilderness, like him or loathe him that didn’t happen by chance but the one area where Tony Blair could have and should have been revolutionary was with the economic policy of this country, instead he simply implanted the Thatcher economic doctrine at the heart of Labour and rebranded it New Labour, and so the gap between rich and poor was destined to grow wider and greed once more was good – at least that was his theory but certainly not mine. The type of revolution I would like to see in this country is one where capitalism is challenged fundamentally, not by replacing it with something else – I’ve studied this subject for a long time and even I find it hard to come up with a suitable alternative; capitalism is good, greed is not!

There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way capitalism operates; it is a wealth creator and that’s a good thing, but it creates huge wealth in the hands of a few and hardship in the hands of the many – it’s that principle which needs change and only someone with a revolutionary insight could bring that about. So many parts of the capitalist project could easily be changed to put it on a new path, a path that is much fairer and less divisive. Supporters of capitalism and free markets argue that competition creates choice and lowers prices, that’s true in the early stages of a products life or when a new company wants to challenge market share, but once the dust settles and we’re left with a handful of companies competing for the same customers everything becomes very stayed and predictable and the only competition we see then is which company will increase their prices first before the others follow suit. The energy market is a prime example, at one time we only had British Gas and Margaret Thatcher privatised it and eventually opened the markets to competition, naturally competition blossomed – for a while, until market share was established and then routine set in and prices continued to rise and rise. If competition really worked, this should be the time when customers benefit but instead within days of one energy company announcing a price rise, the rest follow suit. That’s not competition, that’s a monopoly. Petrol and diesel is another example and this is where capitalism loses its credibility and all sense of perspective, consistently aiming for greater profits instead of a steady consistent turnover without putting hundreds, sometimes thousands of jobs at risk by propagating greed until the bubble finally bursts.

Be satisfied with an established revenue stream instead of putting the company and the workforce at risk and if you’re intent of increasing revenue for your shareholders, reinvest sensibly and innovate research and development to improve your product line and invent new ones, instead of playing roulette with peoples jobs and come to think about it, remove shareholders completely from your business model and allow the workforce to own the company, incentivising them to take greater pride in what they do and to be rewarded financially when the business succeeds.

There are many nuances around the capitalist project that could be changed easily, and others which would require a little more effort, but it is the capitalist structure that at its heart is dragging this country into the abyss and creating this never ending cycle of boom and bust, rich and poor and them and us, and until we see a leader of a political party prepared to challenge that core problem, I fear this country will eventually self-destruct and it will be the generations underneath us who will be left to pick up the pieces, when we had every opportunity to set a brighter future for them but for our own selfish reasons, decided not to!

England v Germany

Not only were England knocked out of the World Cup yesterday but we were beaten comprehensively by a far superior side. On paper England were undoubtedly the better team with the likes of world class players including Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey, but something went dramatically wrong against our old foes Germany and we looked like a Sunday league team for most of the game. England’s defence simply crumbled under the pressure and Germany embarrassed us with sheer pace and style. With less than 32 minutes of the game played we were 2-0 down and fans across the country, and across the globe sat glued to television screens stony faced and despondent, unable to take in the humiliation. With the clock approaching 37 minutes Gerrard flicked a lovely ball into the box and Matthew Upson headed it into the back of the net – England were back in the game.

Less than a minute later and England were on the attack again with James Milner running with the ball from the centre half line, a tap over to James Defoe and the excitement was palpable, Defoe tapped the ball into Frank Lampard who flicked the ball up and over from just outside the box, the keeper stepped back with both arms outstretched but was unable to reach it as it bounced down inside the goal mouth and back up again to hit the top of the post, everyone in the stadium could see the ball had crossed the goal line by at least two feet – everyone that is except the linesman who disallowed the goal. Millions everywhere felt cheated and the player’s protests fell on deaf ears. That decision knocked the wind out of the England players and even the half-time team talk by Fabio Capello had no effect on moral. Boos and jeers could be heard ringing around the stadium from the fans as the referee blew the half time whistle – in the second half Germany came back brighter and more determined to destroy England’s defence with two more goals and with it England’s worst ever World Cup defeat. We had been comprehensively humiliated.

After any tournament defeat the inevitable inquest will take place and less than twenty-four hours later the questions and recriminations are being voiced by fans everywhere. In the past the Football Association have taken the easy route and simply sacked the manager, and there are calls for Fabio to go in some quarters already, but I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. It hasn’t worked in the past and nothing makes me think it will make any difference this time. Having the right manager at the centre of the England squad is of course imperative but its only one element of a huge number of elements that all need to come together at the same time. I’m no expert in football but I do agree with some who have voiced their opinions that the English Premier League is not set up in a way which puts the England side first, it may be the most successful league in the world with world class star players but something is lost in the transition from that to the England team – it almost feels as though the Premier Clubs are given priority over the players they field for the England squad, and it’s difficult to argue with that philosophy when these clubs invest so much money in their star players from a very young age to nurture them into formidable athletes who play at the highest level of football, but as an England team we simply do not win tournaments and that has to change.

I don’t doubt for one minute that the likes of Rooney or Gerrard are incredibly passionate and proud to play for their country; my concern is the motivation behind these players to succeed for the English team. As a top flight premier league player who can earn upwards of a hundred thousand pounds every week playing for their club, they have the lifestyle that many minions in this country would love to have, and with that wealth they also have the mansion and expensive sports cars in the garage – fame is also a natural bedfellow of that lifestyle and through fame comes lucrative product endorsements and a psychological perch that puts these individuals on a platform that the rest of us can only dream about. I’m not for a moment suggesting these footballers shouldn’t have this lifestyle, like many I admire and respect the success they have achieved but you have to ask what else is there to achieve when you have all of this. Becoming a World Cup winner would inevitably raise their profile even further and expand their bank balance by a few more million but when you already earn many millions of pounds, that figure becomes academic. Everything a World Cup winning player could achieve has already been achieved by playing in the Premier League, with the exception of forever being immortalised as one of eleven footballers who bought home the World Cup – and every player who puts on that England shirt dreams of that immortality but on its own it just isn’t enough to step across that psychological line to greatness.

Personally I would like to see players rewarded not just for signing a contract with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur, but for the goals they score when playing for their club, or the impact they have on individual games. By all means reward them handsomely if they put a football into the back of the net or create a memorable pass which allows another team mate to do exactly that, but give them the hunger to shine as individuals and as part of a team and not just a £100,000 cheque every week regardless. Set it up as a tier system which rewards individuals and teams the further they progress in club tournaments and then build an even higher reward system for players who are picked for the England squad, and then for those who achieve great things as individuals and team players for their country – there has to be a financial motivation that players can aspire to achieve right from the grass roots level all the way up to club football, premiership clubs and country, with other revenue avenues blocked in players contracts unless they reach milestones for their club or country. Give them something tangible to aim towards but always with the prospect of lifting the World Cup as the very pinnacle of personal and financial achievement.

England were destroyed yesterday by a much better German side, we failed to even reach the quarter finals in this World Cup and many fans across the country believe that is the minimum we should expect from our England team, but even a quarter final place doesn’t do justice to the quality of players we have. We don’t need reminding any more than it’s now 44 years since we last picked up that World Cup, many of us were not around when that happened so we have no idea what it really feels like for our country to win the greatest sporting prize on the planet. Winning the World Cup is not about great athletes or world class training grounds, we have all of that – winning the World Cup is, especially for the England team a psychological barrier that we have to break through. The longer it takes us to lift that trophy again just adds another layer of doubt in our minds that we are not capable as a nation of winning the big prizes. Give these players their hunger back, make them want that prize above everything else in their career and focus their minds on personal and financial greatness if they achieve it.

England v Germany

Fate has a habit of bringing teams together in the World Cup that make any fan salivate in anticipation, and none more so than a meeting between England and Germany. Our two countries have a long history in professional tournaments and both teams have taken plenty of individual positives from clashes over the years, but it’s fair to say Germany have probably done slightly better against us than we have against them, which makes the game on Sunday even more interesting.

So far the World Cup of 2010 hasn’t exactly been a predictable tournament, the teams we expected to shine have been at best poor and the teams we didn’t give a hope of getting far have risen to the challenge to provide some of the best football of the tournament so far. The World Champions, Italy were sent packing yesterday with a 3-2 defeat against Slovakia, a game that failed to fire the imagination of any fan until the final 20 minutes when both sides suddenly realised the severity of being beaten – a goal fest then ensued with Slovakia scoring in the 73rd minute, Italy in the 81st, Slovakia bringing one back in the 89th before Italy scored again in the 92nd minute, and if it wasn’t for Robert Vittek’s goal for Slovakia early in the game, Italy may have held some hope of progressing to the final sixteen, but as it stood the World Cup holders were crushed in the knockout stages – only the 3rd time in the tournaments history that the champions have failed to progress beyond the knockout stage.

France met a similar fate with whisperings of unrest between manager and players almost from the start of the tournament, with those disagreements being very publicly exposed during the training session last week when French players protesting at striker Nicolas Anelka being sent home for voicing his disgust at Manager Domenech during France’s 2-0 defeat against Mexico on June 17th, decided they would not train and walked out of the ground in what can only be described as a players revolt and an unofficial strike. When they did take on their next opponent South Africa in the Free State Stadium on June 22nd, the humiliation could not have been greater – France lost the match two goals to one and with it their reputation at being sent out of the tournament during the knockout stage.

Other games have proved just as unpredictable over the course of the last three weeks and this afternoons thriller between Brazil and Portugal was yet another that failed to live up to expectations, it was at best very dull and the 0:0 final score line reflected a very uneventful ninety-minutes. Germany’s best result so far was against Australia on June 13th with a 4-0 victory, but that game aside I don’t think it’s unfair to describe this German team as very mediocre. It is their country’s youngest team for 70 years and with that you would expect flashes of brilliance combining pace with tempo but I have to say I’ve seen none of that spark in recent games from this German side – England on the other hand have a raft of experience and solid fall backs at their disposal, I accept our first game against the USA was average while the second game against Algeria was embarrassing, but England have always been a slow burner – we literally find our feet as the tournament progresses and the meeting against Slovenia was a more robust and solid team effort. Be in no doubt these are games we really should have won comfortably though but that aside, if England can bring that same pace and tempo to the game on Sunday against Germany, I am quietly confident of a comfortable win against the Germans – I really do believe we are the better team, the question is do the England players? I’m not expecting goals galore on Sunday, I think both teams will defend well but I’m anticipating a 2-1 victory for England. We can win this game if our hearts are in it.

England v Slovenia

A much, much better performance all round by England this afternoon, we started the game well and controlled the tempo with clever intelligent passes – every player can take pride in their performance. Wayne Rooney was much more fluid and it looked as though he was back to his best, with the exception of the last game against Algeria Steven Gerrard was faultless as usual and reminds me a lot of David Beckham in previous World Cups in his determination and fight. John Terry and Frank Lampard were outstanding in protecting the back but praise quite naturally has to go to the goal scorer Jemain Defoe who pushed forward to land on the end of a fantastic ball to blast it into the back of the net from the goal mouth.

Rooney had a great opportunity in the second half and was unfortunate to hit the post. If there are any negatives from this game it was the last twenty minutes where Slovenia fought hard for an equaliser and England defended strongly, but at the expense of sending more attackers forward to try for that second goal, but the win is what counts the most and today we achieved that – it was only for a late goal in the other game during injury time between the USA and Algeria to put the USA through to the final sixteen top of the group. England are through as runner up however, but considering the performance during our previous two games in this tournament, I doubt there’s an England fan who will be disappointed with that.

George Osborne Increases VAT to 20%

The new taxes introduced today put the economy at risk when we are still teetering on the edge with growth remaining worryingly stagnant, there is every possibility the economy could slip back into recession. What we got today from this new coalition government was the carpet pulled out from under the feet of the poorest in the country; housing benefit will be capped putting the most vulnerable at risk, disability living allowance will be means tested by 2013 and child benefits to be frozen for the next three years, while corporation tax will be cut every year for the next three years putting more money in the pockets of businessmen across the country.

The government claims to be progressive yet everything announced today is regressive, backward looking and short sighted.

England v Algeria

I’m not sure what to say about the game I’ve just witnessed, we are England and that was just a dreadful effort. We had no passion, no drive and no belief. I feel deflated and frustrated, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney never really got into the game and one of the better players was Aaron Lennon who was then substituted for Shaun Wright Phillips who took the same position, when what we really needed was Crouch, Rooney and Gerrard all playing up front in an attacking mode.